Examples of surgical instruments for soft tissue repair or manipulation are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,449,087; 3,470,875; 3,763,860; 3,946,740; 4,164,225; 4,923,461; 4,935,027; 5,527,321; 5,431,666; 5,674,230; 5,728,107; 5,730,747, 5,741,279; 5,871,488; 6,056,771 and 6,084,351.
The Capio™ CL Transvaginal Suture Capturing Device and the Capio™ Suture Capturing Device are available from Boston Scientific, of Natick, Mass. These devices are capable of passing a suture through tissue.
The ArthroSew™ Disposable Suturing Device is available from Surgical Dynamics (U.S. Surgical), of Norwalk, Conn. The Veronikis Ligature Carrier™ is available from Marina Medical of Hollywood, Fla. The device is designed for sacrospinous ligature suspension of prolapsed vaginal vault. The device includes a needle with an eyelet and two clamp fingers. The clamp fingers do not include a mechanism for positively capturing the suture once it is passed through the tissue. As a result, an independent device (e.g. a suture retrieval hook) is required for use with this device to retrieve a suture that is passed through tissue.
Loss of bladder control is a condition known a urinary incontinence. Surgical procedures can be used to completely restore continence in some instances. The literature reports hundreds of different surgical procedures or variations designed to treat incontinence.
Surgical procedures include anterior colporrhaphy procedures, colposuspension procedures, and needle suspension procedures. Colposuspension procedures seek to place the urethra in a high retropubic position. The Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz procedure and the Burch procedure are examples of colposuspension procedures. The Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz procedure places sutures at the urethrovesical junction to the periosteum of the pubic bone. See Marshall et al., The Correction of Stress Incontinence By Simple Vesicourethral Suspension; Surg. Gynecol. Obstet. Vol. 88, Pps. 509-518 (1949).
With the Burch procedure, sutures are placed at the urethrovesical junction to Cooper's ligament. See Gilja et al., A Modified Raz Bladder Neck Suspension Operation (Transvaginal Burch), J. of Urol. Vol. 153, Pps. 1455-1457 (May 1995). A significant abdominal incision is associated with the Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz procedure. The Burch procedure has been performed abdominally, vaginally and laparoscopically. See Burch, Urethrovaginal Fixation to Cooper's Ligament for Correction of Stress Incontinence, Cystocele, and Prolapse, Am. J. Obst. & Gynecology, vol. 81 (No. 2), Pps. 281-290 (February 1961); and Das et al., Laparoscopic Colpo-Suspension, J. of Urology, vol. 154, Pp. 1119-1121 (1995).
Needle suspension procedures elevate the urethra retropubically. They include Pereyra, Stamey, Raz, Gittes, Muszani and Vesica procedures. These procedures (except the Vesica procedure) place sutures transvaginally at the urethrovesical junction and are sutured to the abdominal wall through two small abdominal incisions. See Stamey, Endoscopic Suspension of the Vesical Neck for Urinary Incontinence in Females, Ann. Surgery, pp. 465-471, October 1980; Pereyra, A Simplified Surgical Procedure for the Correction of Stress Incontinence in Women, West. J. Surg., Obstetrics & Gynecology, pp. 243-246, July-August 1959; Holschneider et al., A Modified Pereyra Procedure In Recurrent Stress Urinary Incontinence: A 15-Year Review, Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 83, No. 4 Pps. 573-578 (1994). The Vesica procedure includes an abdominal incision where bone anchors are driven into the top of the pubic bone and sutures attached to the bone anchors are placed at the urethrovesical junction.
An anterior colporrhaphy procedure seeks to elevate and support the bladder neck within the abdominal zone of pressure and allow posterior compression of the proximal urethra against the pubic symphysis. A complication associated with these procedures is voiding difficulties, possibly due to the resultant geometry of the urinary tract.
Another surgical procedure for treating incontinence is a sling procedure, the first of which was the Goebel-Stoeckel-Frannenheim procedure. There are two general types of sling procedures. The first type of sling procedure utilizes bone screws and associated sutures to anchor a sling (e.g. on a posterior portion of the pubic bone). A commercial example of a bone screw sling procedure is a surgical procedure that utilizes the In-Fast Sling System, available from American Medical Systems, Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn.
The second type of sling procedure is a minimally invasive surgical method involving the placement (e.g. by the use of a Stamey needle or other ligature carrier) of a sling to stabilize or support the bladder neck or urethra. See Horbach et al., A Suburethral Sling Procedure With Polytetrafluoroethylene For the Treatment of Genuine Stress Incontinence In Patients With Low Urethral Closure Pressure, J. Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 71, No. 4, Pps. 648-652 (April 1998); and Morgan et al., The Marlex Sling Operation For the Treatment of Recurrent Stress Urinary Incontinence: A 16 Year Review, Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol., vol. 151, No. 2, Pps. 224-227 (January 1985).
The slings described above differ in the type of material, sutures and points of anchoring based on the procedure being performed. In some cases, the sling is placed under the bladder neck and secured via suspension means (such as bone anchors or screws) through a vaginal incision. Bone anchors or screws raise the specter of bone infection, necrosis and other complications, although such complications are rare.
The second type of sling procedure (pubovaginal sling procedures that do not include bone anchors) anchor slings in the abdominal or rectus fascia. These types of procedures involve puncturing the abdominal wall of the patient to pass a needle. Complications associated with sling procedures are rare, but they include urethral obstruction, infection, development of de novo urge incontinence, bladder perforation, hemorrhage, prolonged urinary retention, and damage to surrounding tissue (e.g. caused by sling erosion). The likelihood of complications due to abdominal incisions varies and depends on the particular surgical procedure.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,030,337 and 6,387,040 disclose urinary continence devices and methods for treating incontinence. In some embodiments, a medical device is placed within the urethra.
Other examples of surgical instruments for addressing incontinence or other urological disorders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,686,962; 4,938,760; 5,234,409; 5,256,133; 5,647,836; 5,697,931; 5,997,554; 6,068,591 and 6,149,667.